Tamaki Katori
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese actress best known for her appearances in pink film during the 1960s and early 1970s. Katori was the star of Flesh Market (1962), the first of these softcore pornographic films made in Japan. With over 600 film credits between 1962 and 1972, she was one of the most prolific Japanese adult film actresses of the 1960s, and became known as the "Pink Princess" of the first wave of pink films.

Early life

Tamaki Katori was born to a middle-class family in Kumamoto
Kumamoto, Kumamoto
is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Greater Kumamoto has a population of 1,460,000, as of the 2000 census...

, on Japan's southern-most main island, Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

, in 1938. Her father owned a pharmaceuticals company in Kumamoto which is still owned by the family. After being chosen as Kumamoto's entry in the Miss Universe Kumamoto beauty pageant, Katori was hired by Japan's oldest major film studio, Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...

.

Flesh Market

Katori was still acting in supporting roles at Nikkatsu when she appeared in director Satoru Kobayashi
Satoru Kobayashi (director)
was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s...

's controversial 1962 film, Flesh Market. The first Japanese film to contain nudity (director Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...

's Gate of Flesh
Gate of Flesh
is a 1964 Japanese film directed by Seijun Suzuki.-Synopsis:In an impoverished and burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-World War II Japan, a band of prostitutes defend their territory, squatting in a bombed-out building. Somehow they eke out a living together...

, made for Nikkatsu in 1964, would become the first mainstream Japanese film to contain nude scenes), Flesh Market was shut down by the police and censored before it could be re-released. Officially considered the first pink film-- the softcore pornographic genre which would dominate Japan's domestic cinema in the 1960s and 1970s-- Flesh Market became became a huge box-office success. Even with the limited distribution it received as an independent production, Flesh Market, which was made for 8 million yen, took in over 100 million yen.

Nikkatsu

At Nikkatsu, Katori continued playing supporting roles, notably in several early films directed by future pink film master, Kōji Wakamatsu
Koji Wakamatsu
is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...

. In his pre-pink days at Nikkatsu, from 1963 to 1965, Wakamatsu made 20 low-budget exploitation movies based on current events such as sensational crimes and disasters. Though at first the work was steady, Katori was barely surviving on the bit-part wages from Nikkatsu. When the major film studios started facing a decline in audiences, they began cutting back in film output. Katori's income suffered as well.

Pink films

In the years since Flesh Markets release, several independent studios began specializing in the new pink film genre that had sprung up in the wake of that film's success. When one of these studios was willing to give Katori a contract to star in their pink films, she accepted the offer. She later explained, "They offered me 20,000 yen a movie. It was an incredible sum in those days. I hadn't been able to make it in mainstream movies because people said with my baby face and big boobs I was unbalanced, but those attributes turned out to be exactly what the pink movie business was looking for."

At Aoi Eiga studio, established in 1966 to specialize in these low-budget and profitable Pink films, Katori often worked in the sensationalistic and exploitive films of director Giichi Nishihara
Giichi Nishihara
aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

. Nishihara's films of the 1960s and 1970s would lead critics to call him both "Japan's sleaziest movie-maker," and "a cult favorite among devotees of extreme cinema." In Staircase of Sex (1968) Nishihara starred Katori with two foreign models in an attempt to cash in on the exotic appeal of the caucasian performers. Allmovie critic Robert Firsching comments of her work for the director at this studio, "Katori... deserves some sort of medal for valor after allowing Nishihara and Aoi Eiga studios to have her brutally raped five times in four films."

Early in his career, "Pillar of Pink" director Mamoru Watanabe
Mamoru Watanabe
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his work in the pink film genre. Along with directors Genji Nakamura and Banmei Takahashi, Watanabe is known as one of the "Three Pillars of Pink".-Early life:...

 collaborated with Atsushi Yamatoya-- Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...

's screenwriter on Branded to Kill
Branded to Kill
is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Annu Mari and Mariko Ogawa. It was a low budget, production line number for the Nikkatsu Company, originally released in a double bill with Shōgorō Nishimura's Burning Nature. The story follows Goro...

-- in several films. Katori starred in the team's 1969 film Women Hell Song: Man-Killing Benten, an atypical pink film inspired by Toei
Toei Company
is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...

's Red Peony Gambler series. Jasper Sharp singles out a scene in which Katori makes love in an abandoned temple, as one of the most striking set pieces in the pink film genre.

Katori worked with Kōji Wakamatsu again in the late 1960s and early 1970s, after he had left Nikkatsu to form his own production company. In the Masao Adachi
Masao Adachi
Masao Adachi is a Japanese screenwriter and director who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...

-scripted Sex Jack (1970), Katori appears as the lone female member of a group of anti-government radical students who plan to assassinate the prime minister and hijack a plane to North Korea. Shown at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 in 1971, French censors claimed the film was "anti-social". One of Katori's final films with Wakamatsu was Sex Family (1971), which starred future Nikkatsu Roman Porno queen, Junko Miyashita
Junko Miyashita
is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.- Career :Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films....

.

A leading actresses of the first-wave of the Pink film from 1964 to 1972, which was dominated by independent studios, Katori retired from acting just as her old employer, Nikkatsu, was taking over the genre and establishing the second period of Pink film, the Roman Porno era.

Retirement

After retirement from film, Katori was married to actor Jun Funado for seven years. When they were divorced, she married Toshio Okuwaki, director of such pink films as Bed Dance
Bed Dance (film)
is a 1967 Japanese pink film directed by Toshio Okuwaki for World Eiga. One of the director's best films, it features an early appearance by Naomi Tani.-Synopsis:...

 (1967), which featured an early appearance by Naomi Tani
Naomi Tani
is a Japanese actress who is best known for her appearances in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno films with an S&M theme during the 1970s.-Early career:Born October 20, 1948, in the Hakata ward of Fukuoka, Naomi Tani moved to Tokyo at the age of 18. After arrival in Tokyo, she was featured in a photo layout...

. Okuwaki had been Katori's director in several of her own pink film appearances. A third husband moved with her back to her hometown of Kumamoto, where he went to work for the pharmaceuticals company Katori's father had owned. Though she gained a child from this marriage, she was eventually divorced again."

After her third divorce, Katori decided to support herself. She first ran a gasoline station, and, as of 2006, is presently running a company canteen. Reflecting on her role as a pioneering pink film star, Katori says, "I enjoyed my acting, but I never really got used to the atmosphere of the pink movie business." However, she adds, "I've got no regrets about my time in the entertainment world. I'd still go back there now to perform if there was a part for this old girl."

Three films that Katori had made in 1969 with her second husband, Toshio Okuwaki were shown at the 2003 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival is a documentary film festival held biennially in Yamagata, Japan.It was first held in October 1989, which makes it one of the longest running documentary film festivals in the world and the most distinguished such festival in Asia...

. In September 2009, the 1960s careers of Katori and director Giichi Nishihara
Giichi Nishihara
aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

-- working together and separately—were the subject of a retrospective at the Kobe Planet Film Archive.

Partial filmography

  • Market of Flesh (肉体の市場 - Nikutai no Ichiba) (2/27/1962) dir: Satoru Kobayashi
    Satoru Kobayashi (director)
    was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s...

  • Okinawan Ghost Story: Upside-Down Ghost / Chinese Ghost Story: Breaking A Coffin (沖縄怪談逆吊り幽霊 支那怪談死棺破り - Okinawa kaidan: Sakaduri Yūrei / China Kaidan: Shikan Yaburi) (6/13/1962) dir: Kobayashi Satoru
  • Sweet Trap (甘い罠 - Amai Wana) (9/3/1963) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
    Koji Wakamatsu
    is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...

  • Tough Girls aka Savage Women (激しい女たち - Hageshii Onnatachi) (10/1/1963) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • A Bitch's Gamble (めす犬の賭け - Mesuinu no Kake) (3/17/1964) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Sex Diary aka Flesh Actress Diary (肉体女優日記 - Nikutai Joyū Nikki) (11/1965) dir: Shinya Yamamoto
  • (狙う - Nerau) (1/21/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
    Giichi Nishihara
    aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

  • (泣き濡れた情事 - Nikinureta Jōji) (3/28/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Indecent Relationship (乱れた関係 - Midareta Kankei) (5/9/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Seduction of Flesh aka Temptation of the Flesh (肉体の誘惑 - Nikutai No Yūwaku) (7/11/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • (桃色電話 - Momoiro Denwa) (8/26/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Abnormal Reaction: Ecstasy (異常な反応 悶絶 - Ijo na Hanno: Monzetsu) (11/21/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Female Trap (牝罠 - Mesuwana) (12/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Misused (Zoku Jōji no Rirekisho) (1967) dir: Kan Mukai
    Kan Mukai
    aka Hiroshi Mukai and was a Japanese film director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter, known for his pioneering work in the pink film genre...

  • Staircase of Sex (性の階段 - Sei no Kaidan) (5/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Ripped Virgin (引裂かれた処女 - Hikisakareta Shojo) (8/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • I Hate the Wedding Night! (初夜が憎い - Shoya ga Nikui!) (10/1968) dir: Takashi Chiba
  • (裏切の色事- Uragiri no Irogoto) (12/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Adultery (婚外情事 - Kongaijoji) (1969) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Despicable Man-Killing Benten (男ごろし 極悪弁天 - Otoko Goroshi Gokuaku Benten) (1969) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
  • New Jack and Betty (ニュージャック&ベティ - Nyū Jakku & Beti) (1969) dir: Isao Okishima
  • Sexy Angel (おいろけ天使 - Oiroke Tenshi) (2/1969) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Sex Jack (性賊 セックスジャック - Seizoku Sekkusujakku) (1970) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Women Hell Song: Shakuhachi Benten (Onna Jigoku Uta: Shakuhachi Benten) (1970) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
  • Sex Cycle: The Woman Who Wants to Die (性輪廻 死にたい女 - Segura Magura: Shinitai Onna) (4/1971) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Sex Family (性家族 - Sei Kazoku) (12/1971) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu (star: Junko Miyashita
    Junko Miyashita
    is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.- Career :Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films....

    )
  • Porno Pilgrimage (ポルノ遍歴 - Porno Henreki) (1969) dir: Mamoru Watanabe

External links

(b. 1938) is a Japanese actress best known for her appearances in pink film during the 1960s and early 1970s. Katori was the star of Flesh Market (1962), the first of these softcore pornographic films made in Japan. With over 600 film credits between 1962 and 1972, she was one of the most prolific Japanese adult film actresses of the 1960s, and became known as the "Pink Princess" of the first wave of pink films.

Early life

Tamaki Katori was born to a middle-class family in Kumamoto
Kumamoto, Kumamoto
is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Greater Kumamoto has a population of 1,460,000, as of the 2000 census...

, on Japan's southern-most main island, Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

, in 1938. Her father owned a pharmaceuticals company in Kumamoto which is still owned by the family. After being chosen as Kumamoto's entry in the Miss Universe Kumamoto beauty pageant, Katori was hired by Japan's oldest major film studio, Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...

.

Flesh Market

Katori was still acting in supporting roles at Nikkatsu when she appeared in director Satoru Kobayashi
Satoru Kobayashi (director)
was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s...

's controversial 1962 film, Flesh Market. The first Japanese film to contain nudity (director Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...

's Gate of Flesh
Gate of Flesh
is a 1964 Japanese film directed by Seijun Suzuki.-Synopsis:In an impoverished and burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-World War II Japan, a band of prostitutes defend their territory, squatting in a bombed-out building. Somehow they eke out a living together...

, made for Nikkatsu in 1964, would become the first mainstream Japanese film to contain nude scenes), Flesh Market was shut down by the police and censored before it could be re-released. Officially considered the first pink film-- the softcore pornographic genre which would dominate Japan's domestic cinema in the 1960s and 1970s-- Flesh Market became became a huge box-office success. Even with the limited distribution it received as an independent production, Flesh Market, which was made for 8 million yen, took in over 100 million yen.

Nikkatsu

At Nikkatsu, Katori continued playing supporting roles, notably in several early films directed by future pink film master, Kōji Wakamatsu
Koji Wakamatsu
is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...

. In his pre-pink days at Nikkatsu, from 1963 to 1965, Wakamatsu made 20 low-budget exploitation movies based on current events such as sensational crimes and disasters. Though at first the work was steady, Katori was barely surviving on the bit-part wages from Nikkatsu. When the major film studios started facing a decline in audiences, they began cutting back in film output. Katori's income suffered as well.

Pink films

In the years since Flesh Markets release, several independent studios began specializing in the new pink film genre that had sprung up in the wake of that film's success. When one of these studios was willing to give Katori a contract to star in their pink films, she accepted the offer. She later explained, "They offered me 20,000 yen a movie. It was an incredible sum in those days. I hadn't been able to make it in mainstream movies because people said with my baby face and big boobs I was unbalanced, but those attributes turned out to be exactly what the pink movie business was looking for."

At Aoi Eiga studio, established in 1966 to specialize in these low-budget and profitable Pink films, Katori often worked in the sensationalistic and exploitive films of director Giichi Nishihara
Giichi Nishihara
aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

. Nishihara's films of the 1960s and 1970s would lead critics to call him both "Japan's sleaziest movie-maker," and "a cult favorite among devotees of extreme cinema." In Staircase of Sex (1968) Nishihara starred Katori with two foreign models in an attempt to cash in on the exotic appeal of the caucasian performers. Allmovie critic Robert Firsching comments of her work for the director at this studio, "Katori... deserves some sort of medal for valor after allowing Nishihara and Aoi Eiga studios to have her brutally raped five times in four films."

Early in his career, "Pillar of Pink" director Mamoru Watanabe
Mamoru Watanabe
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his work in the pink film genre. Along with directors Genji Nakamura and Banmei Takahashi, Watanabe is known as one of the "Three Pillars of Pink".-Early life:...

 collaborated with Atsushi Yamatoya-- Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...

's screenwriter on Branded to Kill
Branded to Kill
is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Annu Mari and Mariko Ogawa. It was a low budget, production line number for the Nikkatsu Company, originally released in a double bill with Shōgorō Nishimura's Burning Nature. The story follows Goro...

-- in several films. Katori starred in the team's 1969 film Women Hell Song: Man-Killing Benten, an atypical pink film inspired by Toei
Toei Company
is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...

's Red Peony Gambler series. Jasper Sharp singles out a scene in which Katori makes love in an abandoned temple, as one of the most striking set pieces in the pink film genre.

Katori worked with Kōji Wakamatsu again in the late 1960s and early 1970s, after he had left Nikkatsu to form his own production company. In the Masao Adachi
Masao Adachi
Masao Adachi is a Japanese screenwriter and director who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...

-scripted Sex Jack (1970), Katori appears as the lone female member of a group of anti-government radical students who plan to assassinate the prime minister and hijack a plane to North Korea. Shown at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 in 1971, French censors claimed the film was "anti-social". One of Katori's final films with Wakamatsu was Sex Family (1971), which starred future Nikkatsu Roman Porno queen, Junko Miyashita
Junko Miyashita
is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.- Career :Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films....

.

A leading actresses of the first-wave of the Pink film from 1964 to 1972, which was dominated by independent studios, Katori retired from acting just as her old employer, Nikkatsu, was taking over the genre and establishing the second period of Pink film, the Roman Porno era.

Retirement

After retirement from film, Katori was married to actor Jun Funado for seven years. When they were divorced, she married Toshio Okuwaki, director of such pink films as Bed Dance
Bed Dance (film)
is a 1967 Japanese pink film directed by Toshio Okuwaki for World Eiga. One of the director's best films, it features an early appearance by Naomi Tani.-Synopsis:...

 (1967), which featured an early appearance by Naomi Tani
Naomi Tani
is a Japanese actress who is best known for her appearances in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno films with an S&M theme during the 1970s.-Early career:Born October 20, 1948, in the Hakata ward of Fukuoka, Naomi Tani moved to Tokyo at the age of 18. After arrival in Tokyo, she was featured in a photo layout...

. Okuwaki had been Katori's director in several of her own pink film appearances. A third husband moved with her back to her hometown of Kumamoto, where he went to work for the pharmaceuticals company Katori's father had owned. Though she gained a child from this marriage, she was eventually divorced again."

After her third divorce, Katori decided to support herself. She first ran a gasoline station, and, as of 2006, is presently running a company canteen. Reflecting on her role as a pioneering pink film star, Katori says, "I enjoyed my acting, but I never really got used to the atmosphere of the pink movie business." However, she adds, "I've got no regrets about my time in the entertainment world. I'd still go back there now to perform if there was a part for this old girl."

Three films that Katori had made in 1969 with her second husband, Toshio Okuwaki were shown at the 2003 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival is a documentary film festival held biennially in Yamagata, Japan.It was first held in October 1989, which makes it one of the longest running documentary film festivals in the world and the most distinguished such festival in Asia...

. In September 2009, the 1960s careers of Katori and director Giichi Nishihara
Giichi Nishihara
aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

-- working together and separately—were the subject of a retrospective at the Kobe Planet Film Archive.

Partial filmography

  • Market of Flesh (肉体の市場 - Nikutai no Ichiba) (2/27/1962) dir: Satoru Kobayashi
    Satoru Kobayashi (director)
    was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s...

  • Okinawan Ghost Story: Upside-Down Ghost / Chinese Ghost Story: Breaking A Coffin (沖縄怪談逆吊り幽霊 支那怪談死棺破り - Okinawa kaidan: Sakaduri Yūrei / China Kaidan: Shikan Yaburi) (6/13/1962) dir: Kobayashi Satoru
  • Sweet Trap (甘い罠 - Amai Wana) (9/3/1963) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
    Koji Wakamatsu
    is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...

  • Tough Girls aka Savage Women (激しい女たち - Hageshii Onnatachi) (10/1/1963) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • A Bitch's Gamble (めす犬の賭け - Mesuinu no Kake) (3/17/1964) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Sex Diary aka Flesh Actress Diary (肉体女優日記 - Nikutai Joyū Nikki) (11/1965) dir: Shinya Yamamoto
  • (狙う - Nerau) (1/21/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
    Giichi Nishihara
    aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

  • (泣き濡れた情事 - Nikinureta Jōji) (3/28/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Indecent Relationship (乱れた関係 - Midareta Kankei) (5/9/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Seduction of Flesh aka Temptation of the Flesh (肉体の誘惑 - Nikutai No Yūwaku) (7/11/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • (桃色電話 - Momoiro Denwa) (8/26/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Abnormal Reaction: Ecstasy (異常な反応 悶絶 - Ijo na Hanno: Monzetsu) (11/21/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Female Trap (牝罠 - Mesuwana) (12/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Misused (Zoku Jōji no Rirekisho) (1967) dir: Kan Mukai
    Kan Mukai
    aka Hiroshi Mukai and was a Japanese film director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter, known for his pioneering work in the pink film genre...

  • Staircase of Sex (性の階段 - Sei no Kaidan) (5/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Ripped Virgin (引裂かれた処女 - Hikisakareta Shojo) (8/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • I Hate the Wedding Night! (初夜が憎い - Shoya ga Nikui!) (10/1968) dir: Takashi Chiba
  • (裏切の色事- Uragiri no Irogoto) (12/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Adultery (婚外情事 - Kongaijoji) (1969) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Despicable Man-Killing Benten (男ごろし 極悪弁天 - Otoko Goroshi Gokuaku Benten) (1969) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
  • New Jack and Betty (ニュージャック&ベティ - Nyū Jakku & Beti) (1969) dir: Isao Okishima
  • Sexy Angel (おいろけ天使 - Oiroke Tenshi) (2/1969) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Sex Jack (性賊 セックスジャック - Seizoku Sekkusujakku) (1970) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Women Hell Song: Shakuhachi Benten (Onna Jigoku Uta: Shakuhachi Benten) (1970) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
  • Sex Cycle: The Woman Who Wants to Die (性輪廻 死にたい女 - Segura Magura: Shinitai Onna) (4/1971) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Sex Family (性家族 - Sei Kazoku) (12/1971) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu (star: Junko Miyashita
    Junko Miyashita
    is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.- Career :Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films....

    )
  • Porno Pilgrimage (ポルノ遍歴 - Porno Henreki) (1969) dir: Mamoru Watanabe

External links

(b. 1938) is a Japanese actress best known for her appearances in pink film during the 1960s and early 1970s. Katori was the star of Flesh Market (1962), the first of these softcore pornographic films made in Japan. With over 600 film credits between 1962 and 1972, she was one of the most prolific Japanese adult film actresses of the 1960s, and became known as the "Pink Princess" of the first wave of pink films.

Early life

Tamaki Katori was born to a middle-class family in Kumamoto
Kumamoto, Kumamoto
is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Greater Kumamoto has a population of 1,460,000, as of the 2000 census...

, on Japan's southern-most main island, Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

, in 1938. Her father owned a pharmaceuticals company in Kumamoto which is still owned by the family. After being chosen as Kumamoto's entry in the Miss Universe Kumamoto beauty pageant, Katori was hired by Japan's oldest major film studio, Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...

.

Flesh Market

Katori was still acting in supporting roles at Nikkatsu when she appeared in director Satoru Kobayashi
Satoru Kobayashi (director)
was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s...

's controversial 1962 film, Flesh Market. The first Japanese film to contain nudity (director Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...

's Gate of Flesh
Gate of Flesh
is a 1964 Japanese film directed by Seijun Suzuki.-Synopsis:In an impoverished and burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-World War II Japan, a band of prostitutes defend their territory, squatting in a bombed-out building. Somehow they eke out a living together...

, made for Nikkatsu in 1964, would become the first mainstream Japanese film to contain nude scenes), Flesh Market was shut down by the police and censored before it could be re-released. Officially considered the first pink film-- the softcore pornographic genre which would dominate Japan's domestic cinema in the 1960s and 1970s-- Flesh Market became became a huge box-office success. Even with the limited distribution it received as an independent production, Flesh Market, which was made for 8 million yen, took in over 100 million yen.

Nikkatsu

At Nikkatsu, Katori continued playing supporting roles, notably in several early films directed by future pink film master, Kōji Wakamatsu
Koji Wakamatsu
is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...

. In his pre-pink days at Nikkatsu, from 1963 to 1965, Wakamatsu made 20 low-budget exploitation movies based on current events such as sensational crimes and disasters. Though at first the work was steady, Katori was barely surviving on the bit-part wages from Nikkatsu. When the major film studios started facing a decline in audiences, they began cutting back in film output. Katori's income suffered as well.

Pink films

In the years since Flesh Markets release, several independent studios began specializing in the new pink film genre that had sprung up in the wake of that film's success. When one of these studios was willing to give Katori a contract to star in their pink films, she accepted the offer. She later explained, "They offered me 20,000 yen a movie. It was an incredible sum in those days. I hadn't been able to make it in mainstream movies because people said with my baby face and big boobs I was unbalanced, but those attributes turned out to be exactly what the pink movie business was looking for."

At Aoi Eiga studio, established in 1966 to specialize in these low-budget and profitable Pink films, Katori often worked in the sensationalistic and exploitive films of director Giichi Nishihara
Giichi Nishihara
aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

. Nishihara's films of the 1960s and 1970s would lead critics to call him both "Japan's sleaziest movie-maker," and "a cult favorite among devotees of extreme cinema." In Staircase of Sex (1968) Nishihara starred Katori with two foreign models in an attempt to cash in on the exotic appeal of the caucasian performers. Allmovie critic Robert Firsching comments of her work for the director at this studio, "Katori... deserves some sort of medal for valor after allowing Nishihara and Aoi Eiga studios to have her brutally raped five times in four films."

Early in his career, "Pillar of Pink" director Mamoru Watanabe
Mamoru Watanabe
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his work in the pink film genre. Along with directors Genji Nakamura and Banmei Takahashi, Watanabe is known as one of the "Three Pillars of Pink".-Early life:...

 collaborated with Atsushi Yamatoya-- Seijun Suzuki
Seijun Suzuki
, born Seitaro Suzuki on May 24, 1923, is a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are renowned by film enthusiasts worldwide for their jarring visual style, irreverent humour, nihilistic cool and entertainment-over-logic sensibility...

's screenwriter on Branded to Kill
Branded to Kill
is a 1967 Japanese yakuza film directed by Seijun Suzuki and starring Joe Shishido, Koji Nanbara, Annu Mari and Mariko Ogawa. It was a low budget, production line number for the Nikkatsu Company, originally released in a double bill with Shōgorō Nishimura's Burning Nature. The story follows Goro...

-- in several films. Katori starred in the team's 1969 film Women Hell Song: Man-Killing Benten, an atypical pink film inspired by Toei
Toei Company
is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...

's Red Peony Gambler series. Jasper Sharp singles out a scene in which Katori makes love in an abandoned temple, as one of the most striking set pieces in the pink film genre.

Katori worked with Kōji Wakamatsu again in the late 1960s and early 1970s, after he had left Nikkatsu to form his own production company. In the Masao Adachi
Masao Adachi
Masao Adachi is a Japanese screenwriter and director who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...

-scripted Sex Jack (1970), Katori appears as the lone female member of a group of anti-government radical students who plan to assassinate the prime minister and hijack a plane to North Korea. Shown at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

 in 1971, French censors claimed the film was "anti-social". One of Katori's final films with Wakamatsu was Sex Family (1971), which starred future Nikkatsu Roman Porno queen, Junko Miyashita
Junko Miyashita
is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.- Career :Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films....

.

A leading actresses of the first-wave of the Pink film from 1964 to 1972, which was dominated by independent studios, Katori retired from acting just as her old employer, Nikkatsu, was taking over the genre and establishing the second period of Pink film, the Roman Porno era.

Retirement

After retirement from film, Katori was married to actor Jun Funado for seven years. When they were divorced, she married Toshio Okuwaki, director of such pink films as Bed Dance
Bed Dance (film)
is a 1967 Japanese pink film directed by Toshio Okuwaki for World Eiga. One of the director's best films, it features an early appearance by Naomi Tani.-Synopsis:...

 (1967), which featured an early appearance by Naomi Tani
Naomi Tani
is a Japanese actress who is best known for her appearances in Nikkatsu's Roman Porno films with an S&M theme during the 1970s.-Early career:Born October 20, 1948, in the Hakata ward of Fukuoka, Naomi Tani moved to Tokyo at the age of 18. After arrival in Tokyo, she was featured in a photo layout...

. Okuwaki had been Katori's director in several of her own pink film appearances. A third husband moved with her back to her hometown of Kumamoto, where he went to work for the pharmaceuticals company Katori's father had owned. Though she gained a child from this marriage, she was eventually divorced again."

After her third divorce, Katori decided to support herself. She first ran a gasoline station, and, as of 2006, is presently running a company canteen. Reflecting on her role as a pioneering pink film star, Katori says, "I enjoyed my acting, but I never really got used to the atmosphere of the pink movie business." However, she adds, "I've got no regrets about my time in the entertainment world. I'd still go back there now to perform if there was a part for this old girl."

Three films that Katori had made in 1969 with her second husband, Toshio Okuwaki were shown at the 2003 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival
The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival is a documentary film festival held biennially in Yamagata, Japan.It was first held in October 1989, which makes it one of the longest running documentary film festivals in the world and the most distinguished such festival in Asia...

. In September 2009, the 1960s careers of Katori and director Giichi Nishihara
Giichi Nishihara
aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

-- working together and separately—were the subject of a retrospective at the Kobe Planet Film Archive.

Partial filmography

  • Market of Flesh (肉体の市場 - Nikutai no Ichiba) (2/27/1962) dir: Satoru Kobayashi
    Satoru Kobayashi (director)
    was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s...

  • Okinawan Ghost Story: Upside-Down Ghost / Chinese Ghost Story: Breaking A Coffin (沖縄怪談逆吊り幽霊 支那怪談死棺破り - Okinawa kaidan: Sakaduri Yūrei / China Kaidan: Shikan Yaburi) (6/13/1962) dir: Kobayashi Satoru
  • Sweet Trap (甘い罠 - Amai Wana) (9/3/1963) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
    Koji Wakamatsu
    is a Japanese film director who directed such pinku eiga films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film In the Realm of the Senses...

  • Tough Girls aka Savage Women (激しい女たち - Hageshii Onnatachi) (10/1/1963) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • A Bitch's Gamble (めす犬の賭け - Mesuinu no Kake) (3/17/1964) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Sex Diary aka Flesh Actress Diary (肉体女優日記 - Nikutai Joyū Nikki) (11/1965) dir: Shinya Yamamoto
  • (狙う - Nerau) (1/21/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
    Giichi Nishihara
    aka is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s...

  • (泣き濡れた情事 - Nikinureta Jōji) (3/28/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Indecent Relationship (乱れた関係 - Midareta Kankei) (5/9/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Seduction of Flesh aka Temptation of the Flesh (肉体の誘惑 - Nikutai No Yūwaku) (7/11/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • (桃色電話 - Momoiro Denwa) (8/26/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Abnormal Reaction: Ecstasy (異常な反応 悶絶 - Ijo na Hanno: Monzetsu) (11/21/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Female Trap (牝罠 - Mesuwana) (12/1967) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Misused (Zoku Jōji no Rirekisho) (1967) dir: Kan Mukai
    Kan Mukai
    aka Hiroshi Mukai and was a Japanese film director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter, known for his pioneering work in the pink film genre...

  • Staircase of Sex (性の階段 - Sei no Kaidan) (5/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Ripped Virgin (引裂かれた処女 - Hikisakareta Shojo) (8/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • I Hate the Wedding Night! (初夜が憎い - Shoya ga Nikui!) (10/1968) dir: Takashi Chiba
  • (裏切の色事- Uragiri no Irogoto) (12/1968) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Adultery (婚外情事 - Kongaijoji) (1969) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Despicable Man-Killing Benten (男ごろし 極悪弁天 - Otoko Goroshi Gokuaku Benten) (1969) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
  • New Jack and Betty (ニュージャック&ベティ - Nyū Jakku & Beti) (1969) dir: Isao Okishima
  • Sexy Angel (おいろけ天使 - Oiroke Tenshi) (2/1969) dir: Giichi Nishihara
  • Sex Jack (性賊 セックスジャック - Seizoku Sekkusujakku) (1970) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Women Hell Song: Shakuhachi Benten (Onna Jigoku Uta: Shakuhachi Benten) (1970) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
  • Sex Cycle: The Woman Who Wants to Die (性輪廻 死にたい女 - Segura Magura: Shinitai Onna) (4/1971) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu
  • Sex Family (性家族 - Sei Kazoku) (12/1971) dir: Kōji Wakamatsu (star: Junko Miyashita
    Junko Miyashita
    is a Japanese actress who had a long and varied career working both in pink film and mainstream cinema.- Career :Junko Miyashita was born in Tokyo on January 29, 1949. She was working as a waitress at a coffee shop when she was recruited to work in Pink films....

    )
  • Porno Pilgrimage (ポルノ遍歴 - Porno Henreki) (1969) dir: Mamoru Watanabe
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